Shopping local must be the hottest sustainable thing for 2010 so far (and eating insects of course). I just read a nice article by John Platt on Riverwired who has a fresh perspective on this matter. The sustainable trend of 2011: shopping online?

"Shopping locally uses less energy, right?

Not necessarily, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon's Green Design Institute. The study looked specifically at Buy.com's e-commerce model, and found that shopping online through that site "reduces environmental impact with 35 percent less energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions than what is produced in the traditional retail shopping model."

Obviously, this isn't going to work for every online retailer, or compare to every brick-and-morter store in your area, but still, these results are surprising.

The study found that "approximately 65 percent of total emissions generated by the traditional retail model stemmed from customer transport to and from retail stores." This could change if you drive a hybrid or ride a bike (or god forbid, walk to the store!), but it does illustrate the effect of short drives on our environment ...

Read the full article here.

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